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Some of that is a result of clashes on ice, and some the result of the air turned blue by two coaches, Peter DeBoer and John Tortorella, who can’t resist sparring with one another.

The result is an Eastern Conference final deadlocked after four games that, despite an absence of compelling hockey, is nonetheless becoming rather compelling as it turns into a best-of-three competition.

“The best hockey is yet to come,” said New Jersey goalkeeper Martin Brodeur.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Tortorella, the New York Rangers coach. “I’m truly confident we’ll respond in the proper way.”

The Rangers surely did not do that on Monday night in Game 4, a solid 4-1 Devils victory that once again, as has been the case for the majority of this series, showed Jersey to be the more creative and aggressive team.

They’ve been shut out in two of the four games, but even in those losses they were the better team for two-thirds of the contest. To win this series, the Rangers, with two of the three remaining games on home ice, have to produce a dominant effort of their own, one in which they don’t spend the night as a punching bag.

In Game 4, they punched back, but not in the way that’s going to win them a hockey game. With Tortorella accusing DeBoer’s team of diving and flopping in the wake of a one-game suspension to Rangers forward Brandon (I’m Not That Kind of Player) Prust for a flagrant elbow to Anton Volchenkov’s head, 6-foot-5 Mike Rupp decided to take a poke at the 40-year-old Brodeur in the third after moments earlier making an illegal hit on another Devil.

“I was minding my own business … for real,” said Brodeur.

“I guess he was pumped up and wanted to get at somebody. I think it’s a good sign. Means maybe they’re getting off their game a little bit.”

Neither had much to say about it afterwards, although Tortorella oddly tried to somehow link Rupp’s punch at Brodeur to being called for a penalty a moment or two earlier,

“This isn’t about John and I,” said DeBoer, who a day earlier called Tortorella’s accusations of Jersey diving “comical.”

“This is about the guys on the ice.”

The Rangers, who have yet to win two consecutive games in these playoffs, won their first series against Ottawa by playing a nasty, down-and-dirty style, and they know they can do it again. Jersey, by contrast, turned the other cheek against Philly to get here and has been the one team in these playoffs trying to play anything close to an aesthetically pleasing, forechecking style.

Each team wants to play a certain way, and both can’t do it at the same time.

Something’s gotta give.

It was the 12th game in 18 playoff matches that the Rangers were held to two goals or less. That said, they’ve outscored the Devils 9-7 in the four games despite having so many forwards who have gone stone cold.

At least Ruslan Fedotenko got rolling with his first of the playoffs. That said, defenceman Michael del Zotto had a poor night by his standards and sat watching for long periods of time.

For the Devils, Jacob Josefson replaced Petr Sykora and injected some energy into the Jersey lineup, while Zach Parise burst to life with a pair of goals and a pretty assist on a score by Travis Zajac.

“It was the same . . . the puck just happened to go in tonight,” said Parise, who caused waves simply by not making himself available for comment after Game 3. “It’s a fine line, especially right now.”

Shut out in Game 3, the Devils dealt with that issue early with a goal off the stick of Bryce Salvador, who is having a surprisingly potent spring for the Devils from his left defence position. At 8:10 of the first, Salvador bounced a wrist shot past the skates of four players and through Henrik Lundqvist’s legs to give Jersey a 1-0 lead.

The Rangers didn’t get a single shot on Brodeur until after the halfway mark of the first period. At 11:59, Zajac made it 2-0 on an actual goal created by a nice pass, rare in these playoffs, and that would be all the offence required against the punchless Rangers.

The oddest part of the third period Rupp-Brodeur incident was that they were teammates on New Jersey’s last Cup winner in 2003.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect anything to happen,” said Brodeur. “I never got punched like that in my career. First time.”

Brodeur handled it fine. Now the Rangers have to prove they’ve got something better to throw at him.

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